


Auspex Oblativa

by ladivvinatravestia



Series: I Scry [1]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, candy augury, no beta we die like men, ritual pinata sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 01:18:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20958074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladivvinatravestia/pseuds/ladivvinatravestia
Summary: Steve and Sam buy the life-sized Iron Man pinata because they think it's funny.





	Auspex Oblativa

**Author's Note:**

> For whumptober prompt "stab wound" and spooktober prompts "candy" and "practicing magic".
> 
> I was all set to try writing some straight-faced urban fantasy, which is not my best genre, and then [Deus3xMachina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deus3xMachina/profile) said something about ritual pinata sacrifice and candy augury and here we are.

Steve and Sam buy the life-sized Iron Man pinata because they think it's funny. And it is, right up until Bucky, his heart still racing from a nightmare, comes out into the living room in the middle of the night, mistakes it for an intruder, and sticks it in the side with the knife he's promised Steve he would stop carrying inside. It makes an alarming creaking noise and crumples over, candy leaking from its stab wound. Alarmed now at what Sam and Steve will say, Bucky backs into a corner, trying to concoct excuses for his behavior that they will accept.

Woken by the noise, Steve and Sam come crashing out of the bedroom, Steve with his shield in hand and Sam with his gun cocked. After a tense few seconds, Sam lowers his gun and flicks on the light. This, in turn, seems to summon Sharon and Natasha from next door, Natasha kicking the apartment door open while Sharon aims her gun.

"I'm sorry - " Bucky starts, raising his hands in surrender.

Everyone looks at each other and then lowers their weapons.

"Hey, it's okay," says Steve, approaching Bucky slowly. "Looks like we were all a bit on edge tonight."

Bucky lets Steve pull him into a hug. In the process, Steve jostles the pinata and more candies spill out.

"Oh no, he's bleeding out!" says Sharon, stepping over to put her hands on the pinata's side in mock concern.

"I'm sorry," says Bucky again. He breaks away from Steve to start scooping up the candies. "I'll pick up all the candies, I'll go get another pinata - "

"No, you'll sit on the couch while Steve makes hot cocoa and then we'll all sit around and eat candy and talk about the strangest things we've stabbed," says Sam. He puts a hand on Bucky's arm and steers him toward the couch. Bucky allows himself to be led. He's among friends here, and apparently nobody is going back to sleep any time soon.

"But you were going to use it for -" he begins to protest.

"For breaking open and eating all the candy inside," says Sam. He puts an arm around Bucky and Natasha sits down on Bucky's other side.

"People only buy pinatas for ritual sacrificial purposes, anyway," she says.

Bucky's pretty sure that ritual pinata sacrifice is usually conducted in a big, rowdy group at a well-lit party, not alone and silent in the dark.

"But - " he begins.

"Hey! None of that!" Natasha interrupts, and Bucky stops short before realizing that she's addressing Sharon, who has picked up a lollipop from the floor and unwrapped it. Sharon slides the lollipop slowly into her mouth, tongue curling around it seductively, all while making eye contact with Natasha so direct it might as well be a challenge to fight or - something else.

"Nobody touch any more of the candies," orders Natasha.

Steve stops on the threshold to the living room, five mugs of cocoa steaming in his hands.

"Steve, put those down," says Natasha. "Now that we've ritually sacrificed the pinata, we have to look at the way the candy scattered for omens of the future." There's a faint twinkle in her eye.

Steve hands the cocoa around and then sits on the floor in front of Bucky, leaning back against his legs. Bucky feels suddenly warmer, and not just because of the cocoa in his hands. These are his friends. He's safe here. Instead of feeling trapped by the people surrounding him, he feels safe and understood. Nobody's mad at him for wrecking the pinata, everyone here has had similar moments. He takes a sip of his cocoa.

"Candy fortune-telling," says Sharon flatly.

"Do not mock!" says Natasha in a thick, fake accent. "Is good Russian tradition!"

"Da," agrees Bucky, playing along.

Steve keeps a straight face but Sam covers a smile by sipping his cocoa.

"Okay, show us how it works," says Steve, knocking his shoulder against her knee.

"Let's see," she says, dropping the fake accent. "That shape there," and she indicates, tracing a swirl in the air over the fallen candies, "means that SHIELD is going to have more budget cuts this year, and that one," she indicates another scatter of candies, "means Coulson is going to wear a suit to the Hallowe'en party."

"You're so good at this," marvels Sharon, wide-eyed, and Steve says,

"Okay, I get it. Let me give this a try."

"Bring it," says Natasha.

Steve sits forward, closing his eyes and reaching out with palms down in the air above the candies. He hums and Sam and Sharon make fake ghost noises.

Bucky has a sudden flash of boyhood memory, sitting cross legged on the floor in Steve's ma's apartment, dark except for one candle flickering in front of a hand mirror. They must have been doing something forbidden, he thinks, remembering a furtive feeling and then Mrs. Gallagher storming in from next door demanding,

"What the devil do you boys think you're doing?"

He doesn't remember what they told her, but Steve is now predicting,

"Nat and Sharon will both get recommended for promotions, and we'll have to buy at least one more bag of candy before Hallowe'en."

Natasha and Sharon make noises of appreciation and Sam says,

"Hey, what about me?"

"You're not on official SHIELD payroll yet, otherwise I would," says Steve.

"Sure, sure, you're just playing favorites," Sam teases.

"Okay, my turn," says Sharon, sitting forward in her armchair. "The Mutant Registration Act will never make it past Congress."

"Amen to that," says Steve, and everyone raises their cups of cocoa in a toast. Bucky hasn't read as much about the proposed act as Steve and Natasha probably have, but he's heard enough for it to give him an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. It reminds him of some of the rhetoric being spouted, and not just by Germany, before the War.

"And Jason from IT is going to try to ask Nat out on a date at least two more times."

Natasha groans. "How can a guy be so skeevy and so clueless?" she complains.

"He's not clueless, he's deliberately ignoring your boundaries," says Sam.

Natasha is silent for a moment. "Oh," she says, and Bucky thinks he knows how she may be feeling. His last several months have been one long process of re-learning how to place his boundaries and how to recognize when someone is crossing them. Then abruptly Natasha switches her expression back to cheerful. "Okay, Sam, your turn now."

"Let me see now," says Sam, shifting forward on the couch to get a closer view of the candies. He puts his hands to his temples, squeezes his eyes shut tight, and makes more fake ghost noises. Bucky and Steve join in. Then Sam snaps his eyes open and says,

"Aha! Steve Rogers is going to continue doing dumb shit like jumping out of airplanes without a parachute and fist-fighting guys twice his size."

"Hey!" objects Steve.

"Tell us he's wrong, though," Sharon challenges, and Steve shakes his head ruefully.

"And the four of us are going to keep on kicking ass and taking down more HYDRA cells," adds Sam.

Steve, Natasha, and Sharon raise their mugs of cocoa in another toast, but Bucky hunches over guiltily. He'd told Sam and Steve, when they'd tracked him down in Pensacola, that he didn't want to go on any more missions. They haven't asked him to go on any, but it still feels like he's letting them down, sitting around in DC reading food and lifestyle blogs while they go out and risk their lives.

"And Bucky's going to keep on feeding us delicious homecooked food when we come back from kicking ass," Sam finishes.

"Yes!" the others chorus, and Natasha holds her cocoa up in a toast to Bucky. The others follow. Now he feels even more self-conscious, but it's nice to know that they feel like he's contributing something.

"Okay, Bucky's turn," says Sharon.

Bucky feels suddenly put on the spot. He's been enjoying the others' "predictions" and hasn't spent any time coming up with his own. "I -" he begins.

"You don't have to, though," says Steve, mistaking the reason for his hesitation. Bucky prods him in the butt with his big toe.

"Okay, first," says Bucky, "I'm not going to stab any more pinatas."

Sam makes a noise of fake shock. "Be careful what you promise, some of those pinatas are pretty vicious."

For his next "prediction", Bucky makes a show of looking carefully at the pattern of candies scattered on the floor, searching for inspiration. As he does so, the pinata, which has been collapsing further and further to the side, suddenly buckles, raining one last spray of candies over the couch in its death throes. Bucky reaches up and grabs a candy bar in midair.

"And we will definitely need to buy more candy before Hallowe'en," he concludes, and pops the unwrapped candy bar into his mouth.

"Alright!" agrees Steve enthusiastically, putting out both hands to scoop as many candies as possible into his lap.

"We can eat the rest of the candies, now, right?" Sam asks Natasha. When she nods, Sam and Sharon make a dive into the middle of the floor, mock-tussling over their share of the candies.

Steve tilts his head back into Bucky's lap, smiling. There's a smear of chocolate on his bottom lip, and Bucky leans over to lick it away.

**Author's Note:**

> While I think that Natasha is, generally, a very keen observer of human nature, I also think that her upbringing and training in the Red Room might make her blind to some boundary issues, like the one addressed here.
> 
> Visit me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ladivvinatravestia), where my asks box is always open to prompts.


End file.
